Parenting Tips

Poll of the Week

This week’s poll is up in the right sidebar- be sure and cast your vote.

Last week’s poll results can be found by clicking the polls tab above. Surprisingly, a good portion of voters are not sending out holiday cards this year.

Every year I am tempted to just skip the holiday card process as well - it would cut down on holiday stress. I still cannot believe how difficult it is to get 4 children to pose for a picture once a year. The arguments, the drama, the OPINIONS…. I am sure Santa didn’t envision this!

A Mom’s Letter to Santa

santa.jpg
Photo by Sophiea

No, I didn’t write this letter to Santa. Rather, this letter to Santa is one of those emails that gets passed around. I usually read, chuckle, and delete. But this one could actually be a letter from any one of us.

Despite all the stress, remember to enjoy the holidays!

Dear Santa,

I’ve been a good mom all year. I’ve fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor’s office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son’s red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I’ll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I’d like a pair of legs that don’t ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don’t hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I’d also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you’re hauling big ticket items this year I’d like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn’t broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a
refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, “Yes, Mommy” to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don’t fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting “Don’t eat in the living room” and “Take your hands off your brother,” because my voice seems to be just out of my children’s hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it’s too late to find any of these products, I’d settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don’t mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable?
It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don’t catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don’t eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet. (you promised me last year you would lose some weight with me so next year you and I could be a cute size two blonde…ok, some requests go too far, but none the less…..

Yours Always,

MOM…

P.S. One more thing…you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children, healthy, safe and of course, young enough to always believe in Santa.

*Santa has asked that this gets passed on to all the mommies you know.

One More Friday Giveaway Roundup Item

Terri at Life Plus Kids just sent me a link to a giveaway that she is running. Pop over to her blog and leave a comment to win a lovely three piece maternity outfit designed by Mira Von der Osten. The collection is called Neunmaldrei.

And I forgot to mention on my Friday Giveaway Roundup Post that all of these giveaways have various entry deadlines, so act fast!

Friday Giveaway Roundup for Moms

Moms like me love giveaways. And each week I find some great giveaways.

Here is a roundup of some of the cool ones that I found this week. The only ones that I list are the ones that are easy to enter (after all, what mom has extra time on her hands?). Most of the giveaways just require you to leave a comment on the post at the respective blog. So, pop on over to each of these links and leave a quick comment - you just might win!

  • 5 Minutes for Mom is running the Little Miss Miracle Giveaway - win a lovely, yet funtional oil cloth apron for kids - perfect for those messy art projects!
  • Momsational is awarding two lucky winners a set of 5 Olive Kids Personalized Placemats
  • GoodyBlog is hosting their Holiday Blog Party and giving away items too numerous to mention - and all are incredibly awesome!
  • Mums the Wurd is giving away both the Family Edition and Golf Topics edition of the popular Table Topics game to one winner. This one you enter by sending an email - click the link for details.
  • Busy Mom is giving away an iPod Nano to five commenters. Wouldn’t this be the ultimate stocking stuffer? Leave a comment on her blog post about the most unusual thing you’ve bought online and let the judges decide!

Is Poor Customer Service the New Norm?

customer-service-sign.jpgPhoto by The Consumerist


This article is copyrighted by neenmachine.com

This week, my experiences with customer service have been less than stellar. And it appears that I am not alone.

I needed a new thermostat. The old one was broken. The electrician was due to arrive in an hour, so I stopped by a local hardware store - let’s call it XYZ Hardware.

Good news - they had the exact same model that I was looking to replace. Bad news - it turned out to be a lemon.

Once the electrician got our heat up and running (with yet another thermostat), I took the lemon back to XYZ Hardware. I showed the salesman the original broken one and the lemon I just purchased, just so he would know that I wasn’t pulling a switch.

“Well,” he said, “the problem is, I can’t resell this with the package torn open like this.” (don’t get me started on plastic packaging)

“Well,” I replied, “you probably shouldn’t resell this since it doesn’t work.”

“I have no way of knowing that.” he responded. (He may as well have said “I don’t believe you.” But I got the message loud and clear.) “I’ll have to check with the manager.”
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